The Other End of the Line, 2010 interior with work by DeWitt Godfrey, Gina Occhiogrosso, Margo Mensing, Richard Garrison, Matt Harle photo Paul Kennedy

Francis Cape’s straightforward-appearing art communicates a world view that is complex and sophisticated. As the son of a British diplomat, Cape was born in Portugal and grew up in major cities all over the world. This, and his apprenticeship to a wood carver in York, England from 1974-79 are early markers that led to his life with artist/wife Liza Phillips. Their innovative yet traditional art practices enliven the light-filled rooms of their renovated home and studios in Narrowsburg, New York, a low-income Republican area of Sullivan County that was recently devastated by a derecho, a kind of horizontal tornado. Cape told me that thirty trees were down on his land, and I could see he was already in the process of turning some fallen trees into firewood and hauling others away. In Narrowsburg, Cape serves as a volunteer ambulance driver and head of the Democratic Party and considers this his “social practice.” Continue reading →

After I missed seeing Lucy Hodgson’s solo show Hail and Farewell: Tyrants at Play at SOHO20 in Bushwick, I saw the work installed in her studio. I was drawn there, in part, by the passion in her artist statement excerpted here: Continue reading →

Aimee Gilmore is an artist based in Philadelphia whose current work is intimately connected with her experiences as a mother. Working across a variety of media, from breast milk and baby clothes to neon and rubber, she oscillates between the miraculous moments and the banal aspects of motherhood. Turning over ideas of time and nostalgia, Gilmore’s work deals with the emotions and objects of motherhood by giving voice to an experience that is so often taken for granted. In this interview, Gilmore shares about the trajectory of her work, nostalgia, and the marginalization of motherhood. Continue reading →